Disclaimer: Ian is one of the many, many men that isn't mine. By many many I mean the entirety of the male population. But if I weren't single, what would I be doing spending my free time writing fan fiction? Sorry, that was low….but true. If I had an Ian I'd be off watching indie films or classic movies with him in little old theaters that only show one thing at a time, and having Italian takeout on the waterfront, or digging through CD's at a record store, or maybe books at a used book store, going to Laser Muse or Zeppelin, picnicking on the UW quad….yeah, that's why I write fan fiction….here you go. Long one, I promise.
Cleansed
"So," Ellen said over her shoulder, gesturing at a cave with a threadbare sheet hanging over the opening, "this one's Heidi's. This one's Heath's, this one's Trudy and Geoffry's." As she said the last, she stopped in front of a cave with a quilt over the entrance. She pointed at the next cave down the hall, covered with cardboard.
"That one's Paige and Andy's, and that one's mine," she said, gesturing at a cave covered with a green silk screen. "The last one's empty, but Jeb has decided that you boys might like something a little taller, so he's giving you this one." She turned on her heel to a cave across from the one with the quilt, with an aluminum door resting over the entrance.
"One of the boys brought the door back on the last raid, put it here in case some more people came." She pushed it aside and led us into a cave. It was tall, with about a foot of space above Kyle's head, and he's pretty tall. It was wide too, for a cave. Enough room to move about a bit. Light came in from a maze of cracks. I wondered how that was accomplished without the whole thing caving in, but Ellen seemed to be at ease. She pulled a strand of dirty-blonde hair that had fallen from her ponytail behind her ear, scanning the cave as she did so. "Well, we can bring a few spare cots in here for now, but the next raid, we'll swipe a mattress or two for you. I'll be right back, just have to drop by my cave." She darted out of the cave and down the hall, out of my sight.
I dropped my pack on the ground, and Kyle followed suit. This wasn't exactly a suite at the Plaza, but nor was it a hole in the ground covered with a tarp, which is what Kyle and I were used to sleeping in on the go. I unpacked my posessions, two pairs of faded jeans and three t-shirts, a water bottle, flashlight, sleeping bag, camping pillow, and a small package of things I had brought from home, wrapped in the blanket Mom had made me when I was just a baby. I didn't take the things out of the blanket. Instead I just put them in a corner. I hardly ever unwrapped that blanket, it pulled up too many painful memories. Memories about Jodie, about Mom and Dad, and about…Ellen interrupted my painful train of thought, walking into the cave unannounced.
"All unpacked then? Good. Jeb wants me to take you on a tour. Oh, and bring your flashlight and a change of clothes." I grabbed my flashlight, a pair of jeans, and a red t-shirt, both relatively clean. She smiled and turned out of the room, bouncing a little. She seemed to be that sort of person, bouncy. Not exactly bubbly, but just optimistic. About what I had no idea. The entire human race as we know it was just a handful of people living underground, lucky even to be alive. Kyle and I followed her out of the cave and back down the hall.
Ellen led us through the maze of caves, back through the main cavern with the field and out the other side. We followed her, to the kitchen/mess hall, a pitch-black hole that she called the game room, and through various gardens and halls. She explained the source of the light that brightened all of the caverns except for the game room—apparently Jeb had found this place long before the invasion and prepped it for habitation even then. That sounded like him, paranoid, so crazy he might just not be crazy. The light came from a system of small vents and mirrors that magnified and reflected the actual sun.
"Fascinating," I said as she told us this, working out the complex mirror scheme in my head.
"Yes, for now. Just wait until you have to clean it." I smiled, half in amusement, half in anticipation. I loved physics, this was exactly the kind of thing I had once studied in college. I had been an engineering major, before the invasion. My mind momentarily wandered back to that time, a happier time…
"Hurry up, Ian!" Kyle called, running ahead of me. I rolled my eyes. Typical Kyle, giving it everything he's got now. I saved my energy, I wasn't going to make a 7 mile jog into a race. Kyle would tire out soon anyways, and then we'd see who'd be telling whom to hurry up. I put on an extra burst of speed anyways, just to catch up with him. A healthy wind blew in from the sound, carrying on it the sharp, clean smell of the ocean. I breathed in deeply, letting the cleansing air into my system. I had been spending too much time inside lately, in classes and in libraries. I was in my sophomore year of college. Kyle had graduated last year with a degree in maximum uselessness (Philosophy) and all sorts of football awards. He was now actually working at a sports store downtown, while vaguely considering going pro. He probably wouldn't—Jodi hated the idea of him playing football, she was always afraid he was going to get seriously hurt, end up in a coma or something. I always told her how funny it was that she thought that Kyle going vegetative was some kind of loss or downgrade. But I secretly agreed. He was a pain in the ass, but he was my big brother. Kyle was tough, but even the toughest get hurt in football. Some have never gotten better. So Kyle, having long been thoroughly whipped by a girl the size of his bicep, Kyle had taken a day job without any real complaint.
I, unlike Kyle, had ambitions. Although engineering fascinated me, my heart lay in law. I wanted to help people, and had at first thought I might be interested in medicine. But a professor I had freshman year, Josiah Pierce, had tagged me right away as a lawyer. He was right; I loved logic, reasoning, and debate, the core of litigation. And not corporate law, the leech kind, civil law or criminal law. As cliché as it sounded, I rather liked being the white knight of the put upon. After I got my Bachelors Degree, I wanted to go on to law school, my dream was to attend Harvard, Columbia, Yale, or Stanford, the giants of law education. Yeah, that would probably remain a dream. I'm not exactly rolling in money, and although I get good grades, the fab four are for the best and the brightest. In the end, where you got the JD doesn't matter as much as what you do with it.
The wind picked up as we jogged along the path towards Alki Beach. Even though the long grayness of winter in the Northwest was now fully upon us, there was promise in the air. I was 19 years old, out of the awkward high school years and starting life as an adult. I had a purpose, and a goal I believed in. Like the path that twisted along the waterfront as far as I could see, everything was ahead of me.
I snapped out of my reverie as the air around us began to humidify, getting hotter and hotter. A distant babble of murmuring water was coming from ahead of us. The floor had slanted off downwards, hewn into steps. They seemed stable enough, but I placed my hand against the wall for balance as I walked, just to be certain. I soon saw light appear at the end of the tunnel before us, and the murmur of the water increased along with the humidity. The downward climb ended, and we stepped into a wide cavern. The room was as bright as the other caves, though it must be considerably deeper underground. However, the light danced in bright patterns off the walls and ceilings. The cause of this was soon revealed. Two underground rivers ran through the room. One was little more than a stream, running over the rock parallel the other river and into a much darker cave beyond. The other was a steaming, black rush of water, visible through holes in the floor. Heat came off it, distorting the air around it.
"Careful getting near the holes, Jeb says that the floor's not as stable there and if you fall in, you're a goner," Ellen grimaced. "It's never happened that I can think of." She pointed at the dark cave that the stream flowed into. "In there's the bath. It's warm, but not as hot as the river, so go ahead and freshen up...if you want to that is." She looked us up and down. We must be a sorry sight, dirty and disheveled. She was a little dusty herself, but compared to us, pretty clean.
"It's dark in there though, so that's why I had you bring the flashlights. Beyond that, where the stream flows into the ground, is the toilet." She pulled a yellow-green lump with funny looking bits in it out of her bag. "Here's a bar of cactus soap. It stings, so keep it away from your eyes." She beamed the awed face Kyle had as he took the bar of soap from her. Stinging or not, neither of us had used real soap for years. "Do you think you can find your way back to the kitchen?" she asked. Kyle looked befuddled—he had a phenomenally bad sense of direction—but I nodded. Reveries or not, I had the basics of getting around pretty much figured out.
"That's fantastic. Meet me back there when you're done, and I'll take you to the Hospital wing to get you some cots and introduce you to Doc. Then you can settle in, I suppose." She smiled sunnily once more and turned around, jogging a little towards the entrance.
"Wow," Kyle said. It was the first word he had said to me since we got here, and it pretty much summed up all that had been going on. "This place is something else."
I nodded in assent. "I know. I didn't know that life could go on like this these days."
"So, little bro, what do you say we get all clean for Ellen?"
I frowned, confused. "Why would she care?"
Kyle looked at me as if I was some kind of single-celled organism. "Ian, she's totally into you. Did you not notice the way she talked only to you almost the entire time? Or the way she looked at you? Like you're the last man on earth or something."
My frown deepened. "I don't even know her…" I shook it off. It must just be a crush, she'll get over it. I'm not exactly a smooth conversationalist, and most girls don't go for the nerdy bleeding-heart type to begin with. I started walking towards the bathing cave. Kyle followed. "Funny thing," I remarked as we walked, flicking on my flashlight as we entered the dark room. "Until last night, I thought I was the last man on earth. The last human, really." We had reached the pool, and I set down my flashlight and began pulling off my shirt.
"Hey man, what about me?" Kyle whined, already pulling off his jeans.
"Man-ape hybrids don't count, Kyle." I tossed my shirt on the floor and began to pull the belt out of my jeans. He playfully punched my shoulder (playfully here means pretty damn hard, gentle isn't something Kyle has ever done well, except around Jodi) and waded into the water. I left my jeans with my shirt, keeping my boxers on, and took a running jump into the pool.
"Cannonball!" I yelled, laughing. The water splashed up around me, and my head went under. Already I could feel the dirt and stress of years on the run washing away. Here in the warm water, splashing around playfully with my brother, I felt as close to safe and carefree as I had in a long time. The world of running, scavenging, and constant fear seemed far away, if even for a moment.
Tadaa! Review, tell me about any mistakes or opinions. Unless you don't have anything constructive to say. Then just shut up and either go away or sit tight until something better comes along. And yes, Ian wanted to go to law school. According to me. How amazing is he? In my mind, he's a genius but has no idea, and really no use for his higher education these days, so genius has gone to the wayside.